Ancient Soldiers, how come you never realized a ranged weapon is better?

Keal192NXQ2

Argh! Debra! You censored the word s--tu-pid-?!!!

LiamThePerson

@Keal192NXQ2 Crossbows were invented relatively recently, so nobody before the 1st century could have used them. I also think that sword fighting is easier compared to archery. 

all4actt

When bows and crossbows were available they were slow and restricted to distance and the amount of reloads that could be carried.  The strategies seem to always be to break the distance between bowmen and troops rendering bows ineffective b/c they couldn't be loaded fast enough.  

Debater123

@Keal192NXQ2 Ranged weapons in the time of bows and swords, were not better, but in fact inferior in many ways.

One of the reasons that you only have a limited number of shots, and they can be countered shields rather easily.

If I had 100 swordsmen with shields, and 100 archers, who would win in a fight?

Nomenclature

@Keal192NXQ2

Similar to how modern soldiers basically rely on guns (with good reason), how come ancient soldiers never got the same idea (in using bows)?

Well, archers were a huge part of early armies. I suppose it all depends on what you mean by ancient. 

Archers weren't very effective against heavily armoured knights, men with shields or -- perhaps most importantly -- when attacking castles or other forms of fortification. 

CYDdharta

Nomenclature said:

Well, archers were a huge part of early armies. I suppose it all depends on what you mean by ancient. 

Archers weren't very effective against heavily armoured knights, men with shields or -- perhaps most importantly -- when attacking castles or other forms of fortification. 

I thought this was interesting;

https://youtu.be/DBxdTkddHaE

CYDdharta

It takes a lot of skill, strength, and training to be able to draw and hit something with a 160LB bow. 

The reason crossbows were invented was so that people who had never held a bow, like peasants,could fire munitions like an archer without all the training or strength.  The problem with crossbows is that they are slow to reload.  A heavy crossbow is slower to reload than a musket.